East End of the World
Abbess Gallia Nemand felt pressured.
Her entire group felt their shields shake under the pressure of the golden liquid, wrapping around them in quickly cooling layers. They couldn't attack if they couldn't see the target, and going outside their combined shield wouldn't be safe.
Gallia didn't think she'd have to use her boost so quickly and was pulling out her vial of blood when suddenly the pressure stopped, and there was silence on the other side. The others looked at each other, clutching their talismans in their hands, while Gallia looked down at the hardened golden surface. She thought quickly before turning her head behind her to give her people their orders, but again, she didn't have time to finish her action when there was a knock.
Clink. Clink. Clink.
Someone from the other side knocked politely on the golden metal.
"Dear visitors. Do you want my gold?" The knock was followed by a soft male voice in which there was a hint of sadness, but also a touch of anticipation.
Gallia shuddered for some reason and felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up.
Clink. Clink. Clink.
The man on the other side knocked again. "Dear visitors, aren't you there? Are you there? You're not there? Are you there?"
Clink. Clink. Clink.
The knocking became more insistent.
Gallia held her breath, feeling like it wasn't a good idea for her to answer the man. His voice sounded soft, but her instincts warned her, so she signaled her men to be silent.
"They probably don't want my gold." They heard the man's voice again, and it sounded very sad. But then the cursed little girl spoke. "Of course, they want it, Sad Prince. They're just ashamed to ask. Just give it to them, hehe."
"They want it? Really? All right!"
Clink. Clink. Bang. Bang!
The clinking turned into blows that shook the shield again, but also the golden husk. Gallia mentally cursed and cursed the girl with the colt. "Retreat! Retreat!" She quickly yelled, feeling very bad about it; their entire group began to move without pulling the shield around them. However, the movement caused the golden crust to start breaking.
Crack!
A gold-covered hand broke through the golden wall. Gallia quickly glanced at it and saw the golden hand open, with a pile of paper-thin golden pieces resting on the palm. "Take my gold. It will make you happy. Happy. Happy!" Gallia heard the voice, and then the crumbling wall of gold revealed the source of the voice as well.
"Damn! What is that!?" Someone behind her shouted, and even Gallia was a little shocked. The man with the soft voice looked like a half corpse bathed in gold. Most of his body was covered in gold, and occasionally white skin could be seen from underneath. While the gold covering his face created a death mask, his red eyes showed that he had more than enough life in him. A little blood oozed from several places on his chest, and bloody flesh could be seen. Gallia glanced again at his outstretched hand, and only now realized that she saw red between them.
The group continued to retreat, but they not dared turn away from the golden monster.
Gallia had seen a lot of monsters, but not like this. It was like a human, but a monster at the same time.
The Sad Prince saw the retreating visitors, raised his hand, and blew hard on the pieces of gold in his palm; they flew forward like tossed confetti. "Reinforce the shield!" Gallia commanded, and they all chanted a short prayer, the silver glow of the shield becoming slightly more intense.
The golden confetti hit the shield and clung to it. It seemed harmless, at least until the gold pieces began to move of their own accord. The thin layer of flesh and skin that clung to the underside of the golden pieces wiggled slightly and now resembled some sort of insect.
Gallia wasted no more time, pulling out a vial of blood, which she stuffed into her mouth between her canines and took a bite. The sharp tip easily pierced the soft stopper of the vial and dipped into the red liquid. Gallia felt the familiar tingle in her gums as she began to suck the blood, and a pleasant feeling of energy spread through her body. When the vial was empty, she immediately spat it out, clutched her talisman, and began to recite.
"Αληθινό φεγγάρι που παρέχει την προστασία σου, μέσω του σύμπαντος και των ουρανών δώσε μου τη δύναμή σου. Η προστασία γίνεται όπλο, το όπλο γίνεται προστασία".
Gallia looked at their silver shield and moved the hand that held the glowing talisman. She felt a surge of power, and at her will, the shield moved. Slowly, it moved forward, and even though doing so left her group without the protection of the shield, it didn't matter at the moment.
The shield shrank a little, but not by much. Its surface glistened and became more visible, now resembling glass covered with a layer of frost.
The Sad Prince looked at the approaching wall in confusion. Danann, who was standing nearby, quickly jumped onto her cauldron. "Highness, get out of the way!" She shouted while her cauldron jumped away.
The Sad Prince looked after Danann instead of following her advice, and the wall swept him away. She crashed into him and carried him further away from the visitors. The Sad Prince was in pain and tried to brace his hands against the wall, but the momentum pushed him down, making him look like a golden fly splattered against the windshield.
Stomp, stomp, stomp.
There was the sound of heavy footsteps. Something golden suddenly flew out of one of the side alleys, moving on two legs, and it was about two meters tall.
Gallia blinked before rolling her eyes at the golden robot. The surface glistened golden, but what was more surprising was that it resembled a pig. Gallia had seen robots this big before; they usually worked in warehouses or ports dealing with heavy cargo, but they looked a lot worse than this one. The golden pig looked much more modern and sophisticated than the ones Gallia had seen so far.
Golden Pig ran in front of the flying wall and raised his hands.
Bang!
The Golden Pig collided with the wall but was not thrown aside. Instead, it braced its hands against the wall and dug its feet into the ground, being careful not to harm the Sad Prince. The robot's feet left a deep mark in the ground, cobblestones flew out sideways, and broke more than one house window.
"Hhhh!" Golden Pig huffed in a feminine-sounding voice. The wall was slowing down, so Golden Pig pulled back one hand clenched into a fist and stretched. A burst of gold dust flew out from the elbow, and the clenched fist shot forward.
Rumble! Shatter!
The impact was so powerful that the thud carried far through the city streets, and the shield shattered. Golden Pig staggered forward as the silver shield flew around and vanished into thin air. The Sad Prince fell suddenly to the ground again and rolled over twice more before remaining on the ground.
"Highness!" The Golden Pig shrieked in a feminine voice and quickly walked over to him. Quickly, the cauldron the little girl was standing on also flew over to him, and they both looked worriedly at the collapsed Sad Prince.
Slowly, the Sad Prince braced himself on his hands and raised himself to a sitting position. "Huu... that hurts... huuu..." He said softly and raised his head. Big tears rolled down his golden death mask.
"Huuu.... huuu..." The Sad Prince covered his eyes with his hands and began to cry pitifully.
"Ah... ah... Sad Prince, please don't cry!" Danann tried to comfort the Sad Prince.
The Golden Piggy that was inside the Pig Robot looked at the crying man for a moment before turning to the stunned group of enemies. She rubbed her fists together. "You're going to pay for this! How can you make our boy cry!?"
Danann turned to them as well, her eyes blazing with rage and vengeance. "I'll pour your insides in gold!" she roared.
The group was far away from Gallia now, but even here she could feel their murderous intent, and she could feel the blood drain from her face. She was tempted to turn and run quickly.
*****
Western part of the End of the World
Bishop Archie proceeded with his group without any major problems. Archie stopped at another old stack of newspapers and tried to read through them again, but the articles were so bizarre or he couldn't understand them at all.
The newspapers wrote about names, places, and terms he didn't know at all, so he gave up trying any further. However, as they approached the next pile of newspapers, he began to get the feeling that something was odd.
Suddenly, he stopped and looked around. It was beginning to strike him as odd that there was no trash anywhere at all except for the scattered newspapers. He turned around, and his feeling that something was wrong grew stronger. He counted heads, and his frown deepened. Two people were missing.
Archie began to mentally berate himself for not recognizing the danger right away. "Activate your shields!" He ordered immediately.
The others obeyed him immediately even though they didn't understand what was wrong. Archie felt his ears twitch. "Down!" He shouted, and immediately crouched while a silver glow rose up around him.
"Gah!" one of them suddenly flew backward and remained lying motionless on the ground.
They all turned to look at their comrade, who had a paper airplane sticking out of his forehead. The paper airplane slowly began to turn red. The one closest reached out and took off his lying comrade's golden mask, and they all saw the dead eyes of their comrade. The paper airplane not only pierced through the golden mask but also burrowed deep into the man's head, killing him on the spot.
Archie clicked his tongue angrily and looked around. At the same moment, two slender figures flew through the air, performing an aerial somersault. One of them landed on a nearby street lamp, and the other landed on the marquee of a store.
Bishop Archie squinted his eyes, straightened up, and took a good look at them. They looked human, but their bodies were all bandaged up with mummy-like bandages. Archie looked more closely and realized it wasn't bandages they were wearing but paper?
"Kekeke."
"Kekeke."
The two people started a weird laugh that sounded like laughter combined with gnashing teeth. Archie frowned and clenched his fists. "Who the heck are you?" he asked darkly.
"Kekeke!"
"Kekeke!"
The two of them laughed again, which Archie didn't take as an answer and immediately lunged for the closest thing. The man standing in the streetlight watched as Archie approached in a flash and struck the streetlamp with his silver-gloved fist.
The mummy leapt into the air and then flew easily like a kite to the roof of the house next door.
Archie, who had struck the lamp, followed the mummy with his eyes, oblivious to the street lamp, which bent and twisted all over under his blow.
"Extra! Extra! Not only are the invaders attacking our home, they're also committing vandalism!" Said the mummy on the roof of the house, looking down mockingly at Archie.
The other mummy also spoke.
"Shocking! The invaders lost three of their members without even noticing! People question the leader's abilities!"
Inside Archie was bubbling with rage; he had to take a deep breath and exhale to calm himself down. It wasn't easy with his temper, especially when he could feel the stares of his group.
"For the last time. Who are you?" he asked again, and it was a feat for him now. He would have liked to kill them right then and there, but he had no idea what he was dealing with. These two people were extremely strange.
"Who are we? Kekeke." One of the mummies replied, looking at the other mummy. They both ran and jumped high into the air, giving high fives as they flew toward each other and gently descended to the ground without making a sound. Then they dramatically turned their backs to each other and performed a pose where one of them thoughtfully propped its chin with thumb and forefinger, and the other covered its eyes with its fingers spread wide.
"We are as swift as the wind, as quiet as a whisper, we are where the action is." Said one dramatically. The other immediately followed up. "We're the hottest duo in all of the End of the World! We are...!" They held hands and leaned against each other as they both spoke at the same time. "Cyrano and Julie! Journalistic Aces!"
They stayed like that for a moment before letting go. Cyrano applauded. "That was great, Julie! We've improved so much!"
The slightly smaller mummy who was named Julie jumped up happily. "I think so too! Maybe we could do a little more complicated move at the end and...." The two began to ignore the group completely, and an angry vein swelled in Archie's forehead.
"Hey. Hey! Hey assholes! What the hell are you doing!" He barked at them. "Are you kidding us?!" He was white-hot with rage. He'd just had a man killed, two others were missing, and these two were putting on a show for them? What the heck?!
Cyrano and Juliet turned their heads to him and looked at him in silence for a second.
"Kekeke."
"Kekeke."
They started laughing mockingly again. Archie had just about had enough; he spat angrily to the side. "Fine."
There was a brief flash beneath his soles, and his body shot forward. He swung his fist, catching the duo by surprise. Immediately, he slammed his silver-glinting fist into Julia's body.
To Archie's surprise, he felt only the slightest resistance, and Julie's body splintered sideways into bits of flying paper and scraps of newspaper. Cyrano next to him spread his arms, and his body was carried backward so that he resembled a kite even more.
The pieces of paper didn't even touch the ground as they waved into the air and flew backward towards Cyrano, where Julie folded back into her original form. The two mummies exchanged glances before looking back at the surprised Archie and starting to laugh again.
"Kekeke!"
"Kekeke!"
Bishop Archie gritted his teeth but folded his arms and looked at the two giggling mummies. It wasn't good for him; he was focused on physical combat himself, but these people, or whatever they were, seemed to have strange bodies. What was it? A curse?
"Blessing 32F! Now!" He barked at his men.
His squad was already ready for orders, so they immediately began chanting prayers. Cyrano and Julie stopped laughing and looked at them curiously. After a few seconds, they both suddenly pulled out pads and a pencil from somewhere and both began to write furiously, staring at the chanting group.
Archie couldn't believe his eyes. Did the two of them realize what was going on? They are enemies, and now they have to fight. Not take notes!
But Archie didn't hesitate and joined in towards the end of the singing which made the blessing stronger. A silver light flew out from the group and surrounded the two mummies, forming a semi-transparent box around them.
Cyrano and Julie stopped writing and looked around. Then Cyrano touched the wall, sparks flew from his fingers, and he quickly flinched. "Hm... what's that?" Julie touched it too but got hit just like Cyrano.
The two then looked at each other and tried to touch each other, but they were separated, so they got hit again. "Oh crap." Cyrano muttered, looking around hesitantly. "What is it?" Julie asked, waving her hand to get rid of the pain from her fingers.
Archie grinned when he saw that it worked. "Blessing 32F! Suppressing and sealing the middle-grade curse. You should have been paying attention and not drawing. Still feel like laughing?"
Cyrano and Julie felt insulted. "Mate, we weren't drawing! We were working! We're mostly journalists!" Julie nodded and picked up her scythe to show the drawing. "I mean, I did draw, but it's an illustration for an article!" The drawing showed a rather lifelike depiction of Archie and his group singing the blessing.
Archie shook his head; this duo was very strange. He couldn't believe he'd already lost three people to such clowns.
He walked closer to the trapped mummies. "Well, whatever. This is your end. Goodbye." He said, muttering a few words before he made a hand sign in front of the seals, a thin beam of silver light coming out of his fingers and touching the silver glittering boxes. They suddenly began to shrink, and rather quickly.
"Uh? Uh?" Cyrano looked around and crouched down.
"What are you doing?" Julie asked, also trying to shrink as she suddenly got hit in the ass as one wall touched her.
"I'm shrinking the prison to a size that will crush you." Archie explained, a cruel smirk appearing on his face.
Cyrano and Julie exchanged worried glances. This wasn't going quite as planned. Since when did humans have seals this strong? Cyrano tried to ram his shoulder into the wall, but it was like sticking wet fingers into an electrical line. He received a powerful blow that shook his body.
"Uuuhh..." Cyrano groaned, bulging his eyes at Julie.
"Corrector! Corrector!" Juliet suddenly started to cry out, and Cyrano joined her. "'Corrector! Corrector!" The duo of journalists cried for help. They didn't want to call the Redactor because they were afraid he might end up like them. However, the Corrector was the strongest of their department and a blessing like that wouldn't work on him. Also, the Corrector was someone the entire editorial staff of 'Scream' feared. He was very harsh in his criticism.
Archie frowned as he heard them call for help, then looked around at his group. "Pay attention!" he ordered.
Archie quickly looked forward again when he sensed something. A figure was walking quickly down the street towards them. He was just under six feet tall with broad shoulders and muscular legs. He reached them very quickly, and Archie rolled his eyes at the strange man that appeared.
Could it even be called a man? His entire body was made of paper, artistically folded into sharp edges that mimicked a kimono style outfit with square shoulders, his head folded into a strange hat that looked a bit like a helmet with horns. His face was made of smoothly folded layers of paper that created fine wrinkles, making his face look very human, but his chin was adorned with a beard made of silk bookmarks. The only thing not made of paper were the eyes, which were underpainted with red liner, giving the impression of slanted eyes, and the color of the eyes looked like old yellowed paper.
"Wrong. Wrong. All wrong! You two!" The man scolded the trapped mummies in a cold voice full of criticism. The duo of mummies slumped even more under the onslaught of the Corrector's words.
"Our fault! Our mistake! Please! Corrector, save us!" the two began to plead.
The Corrector snorted and looked at Archie and his group. The Corrector reached into his wide sleeve and pulled out a paper fan, which he pointed meaningfully at Archie and tilted a little of his head back.
"Wrong! Your attitude! Your breathing! Your temper! All wrong! Everything must be corrected!" he commented coldly.
Archie flinched a little, and for some reason, the strange paper man's words hit him harder than they should have.
*****
Main Street End of the World
Primas Jason frowned and watched his group as they prepared to leave. About two hours had passed since the incident, and his group had been watching Jason warily. Finally, they heard the conversation with the bust and knew what the Evil God had to offer Jason.
Primas Jason seemed angry, but no one was sure what he thought.
Jason thought very seriously about everything that had happened. It seemed that the Evil God was more powerful than she seemed. That made him nervous, but even more frightening was how it was possible that she knew about his thoughts and desires.
In fact, Jason would have no problem agreeing. He would happily drop everything and anything if he got what he wanted. The problem was, how much could he trust it? He was old and experienced enough to know how some entities could be tricky. Trusting the enemy was not something he would do. But what if it was true? Could he afford to miss this opportunity?
Maybe he could verify the Evil God's words somehow, right?
Jason licked his withered lips lightly and fixed his eyes again on his troop, who were already lining up to leave. Some of them who had been watching Primas shuddered slightly and began to feel as if they were animals in a slaughterhouse.
They weren't dead yet, but they could feel it coming.